Abstract:

Background: Skin diseases are very much prevalent in the developing countries. The morbidity and discomfort associated with these skin conditions are the reasons people seek medical care and the problem is brought with the inappropriate and irrational use of medicines. Therefore prescribing pattern studies are useful to monitor, and evaluate medical care so as to make it rational and cost effective. The objectives of this study was to determine the drug prescribing pattern and the common skin diseases for outpatients in dermatology department at Bugando medical centre.

Method: This is a retrospective study conducted for a period of one year in the dermatology department at Bugando Medical Centre in Mwanza Tanzania to assess the prescribing patterns of the dermatological agents and conditions. A systematic random selection was used to obtain data from medical files .Sample prescriptions were reviewed using structural data collection tool kit. The Collected data was analysed by using SPSS version 20.

Results: The study includes a total of 363 patients and overall numbers of male patients were 154 (42.4%) while numbers of female patients were 209 (57.6%). Regarding route of administration, the maximum number of drugs was prescribed topically (57.6%). Topical steroids were the most commonly prescribed drugs (42.8%) followed by Antihistamines (17.8%). The prevalence of atopic dermatitis was higher (27.8%) followed by Acne vulgaris with (6.0%). Number of drugs per prescription was (1.9) which is in range with WHO standard (<2).

Conclusion: The current study reveals that topical corticosteroids and antihistamines were commonly prescribed drugs and the topical route was the most used route of administration, the incidence of polypharmacy was minimal which means good practise. This study found out that atopic dermatitis was the most prevalent disease condition.